Oh how I love the New Media. It offers so many creative minds the ability to share with the world their labors of love. But that isn’t what this post is about; this post concerns the recent “Earth Hour” protest thingy that took place this past Saturday.
For those of you who might have participated without knowing, here is a video to elaborate:
Yea, my thoughts exactly, what a waste of time and effort (what little effort there was, at least). Plus it was taking place on a Saturday at 8:30pm around the world. Honestly, a Saturday? How many people are going to be home at that time anyways which automatically makes them participants, knowingly or not.
But this “protest” wasn’t without its ups. Without it, we wouldn’t get such creative spin-offs like the video below via IMAO. Enjoy:
I really don’t know why I thought it was that funny. I don’t know, maybe it was the soundtrack or perhaps it was the part when it stated “Because global warming…waits for no one” that finally got me. Whatever the case, it gave me a good chuckle and I think we all deserve one considering our country’s current political circumstances.
Aurora Biofuels was able to produce 1,000 gallons of algae based biofuel in a 1/8 acre open pond over the course of 18 months. The fuel was ATSM quality which means that it can be used in current engines. Aurora believes that they will be able produce 6,000 gallons per acre a year in full production mode.
- Click Here for the Article
Well duh he is going to say this. What really surprises me is that the Guardian found his statement to be something profound enough to run a whole article based off of it. Honestly folks, this is the same guy who basically advocates eco-terrorism and establishing a carbon czar to make sure we never have cheap oil again.
If you forgot those things, take a look at these two videos to refresh your memory (eco-terrorist first, carbon czar second):
See? His whole “democracy isn’t working” statement isn’t so outrageous now is it?
OriginOil CEO Riggs Eckelberry proposed that algae biofuel corporations should take a more collaborative outlook in order to quickly implement algae as a leading fuel source worldwide.
- Click here for more of this story
With algae-based biodiesel pilot and demonstration projects due to be launched in 2010, Houston-based biofuels analyst Will Thurmond predicts the first large- scale algae production destined for the U.S. Department of Defense will begin in 2011 and the first commercial-scale algae biodiesel production will start the following year. “It will be expensive at first,” Thurmond said during a recent webinar summarizing his soon-to-be published algae report, which is titled “Algae 2020: Next Generation Biofuels Markets and Commercialization Outlook” and is due out in late March.
“There is a lot of hype around algae,” Thurmond admitted, but after discussion with experts and surveys of many companies, he projects algae production to begin scaling up to commercial levels between 2013 and 2015, with the cost dropping and market share rising and, by 2020, “I expect algae will become a mainstream commodity for biodiesel, bio crude and ethanol.”
Not too long now.
If you want to get a preview of the report and possibly buy the whole thing (Price: $2,950), click here. Also, if you would like to donate $2,950 for me to purchase this report, contact me here. I accept cash, check, or PayPal.
A couple weeks ago, I conducted interviews with representatives from both Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation and Solazyme about their dealings with jet fuels derived from algae. The interviews went well and some pretty interesting things were discussed. Here, take a look:
Probably one of my biggest questions was what is it going to take for a plane to run on 100% algae biofuel? The answer to this question was quite heartening.
“Intrinsically, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t run a plane on 100% algae derived jet fuel,” Dr. Day stated.
Pretty nifty eh? You should read the rest of my article here at Celsias.com where it was originally posted.
A Seed Science Ltd. study looked at the future for algae biofuels in British Columbia and around the world and the results weren’t that heartening. First off, the results of the study showed that photobioreactors are by far not going to be commercially feasible for quite some time. The biofuels produced from these reactors won’t be able to compete with regular petroleum.
However, though most of this study was pretty “sober”, they did offer a brief ray of hope: algae fermentor. Take a look:
… The fermentor is a quite different technology that uses no sunlight and an organic carbon source. According to the analysis, this technology comes closest to commercial viability. Nevertheless, it would need further improvements to become competitive with fossil fuels and to offer real life-cycle advantages over first-generation biofuels. Table 1 compares all three technologies examined.
The verdict, based on the research, is therefore that algae research should concentrate on the two technologies identified (the raceway for warm climates and the fermentor). At the same time, other alternatives, such as using bacteria to produce biofuels, should be compared to using algae to see if they offer a bigger chance of success.
This whole article is a pretty straight forward and pretty negative towards the future of algae as fuels. I tend to be more optimistic definitely when I see articles about how catfish farmers could essentially make hundreds of thousands of dollars with just a few hundred acres of catfish ponds.
I didn’t have time to read the whole 88-page study that this article is based off of but you can see it here. However, if you don’t have time to read that (like me) here is the summary.
Many catfish farmers in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama are thinking about converting to algae production. If they do this and sell the alge to PetroSun, the profits could be quite lucrative. Farmers could make about $1,000/acre per year.
- Click here for more
Yes, it has been a while since I have blogged and I’m sorry. I have been very busy doing other things (aka not failing in at the University of South Carolina and doing some other projects (SC Statehouse Blog and Need by Need). You really should check out those two sites. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
Anyways, I will hopefully start picking up some bloggin here, even if it is just quick little articles. Lots of things have happened in algae recently. Check out the articles I have written for Celsias (here, here, and here) for some updates on what is happening in the algae biofuel arena.
Also, this coming week is Spring Break and I will be in Washington, D.C. on a mission trip for half of it and at the beach for the other half. I will have my handy Blackjack II so I just might throw some blog posts up but don’t be disappointed if I don’t.
Hope your March is starting off well and I shall see you in a week!
